Why Starting Tasks with ADHD Feels Impossible (and How to Get Moving)

ADHD is often associated with difficulty starting, completing, and organizing tasks. Case in point – I have a goal of writing more, I experience random moments of inspiration for blogs about common ADHD challenges, and I committed to write about task initiation for this post. I have clarity, purpose and passion. But, I can’t get started. To overcome my task paralysis, I dug deep. I leveraged self-awareness, patience and my whole bag of tricks, including:

• Read about the topic to get ideas flowing
• Check in with my feelings (ahem, overwhelmed by the pressure of writing something perfect) 
• Draft an outline
• Make a yummy coffee
• Body double with my daughter doing homework

And it was STILL hard to start.

Every week, I hear a coaching client say something like, “Once I get started, I’m good, but it feels impossible to begin.” It’s frustrating to say the least.

Why is task initiation so hard for us?

Understanding why this is a common experience for those of us with ADHD is a whole book in itself. The cliff notes mostly come down to executive function difficulties:

• Planning and prioritization can be challenging when a task is ambiguous or complex.
• ADHD brains are more prone to big emotional swings like overwhelm & frustration which can lead to task paralysis.
• We struggle to regulate attention and are easily distracted by our environment (or our own brains).
• If we aren’t in the mood or intrinsically interested in the task, it can feel impossible.
• We can be inconsistent and lose faith in our own reliability.

How can we make task paralysis easier?

Getting started requires a multi-layered approach that acknowledges both our unique brain wiring and our emotional landscape.

1. Understand your patterns

There are many reasons breaking the inertia can be a challenge. Understanding your unique barriers is the first step to developing effective strategies. By identifying areas that come up repeatedly in your life, you can improve your life little by little. These incremental changes compound over time, transforming seemingly insurmountable obstacles into manageable steps towards personal growth.

2. Get engaged

If you can get engaged, you can do anything! Once ADHDers are motivated, we can harness immense drive, creativity, out-of-the-box problem-solving, and deep focus. The challenge is tapping into that spark! Psychiatrist and ADHD researcher Dr. William Dodson proposed that people with ADHD often operate with an interest-based nervous system and working with our authentic interests is the best way to get engaged. We can’t always be inherently interested in what we must do, but the acronym “PINCH” gives us ideas to support ADHD task initiation. “PINCH” stands for Passion, Interest, Novelty, Challenge (or Cooperation/Competition), Hurry (Urgency).

3. Lower the barrier to starting tasks

Use these tactics to give yourself a boost:

• Reduce ambiguity: When there is a lack of clarity or understanding for a task, task paralysis kicks in. It can help to ask for specific and detailed instructions, use Chat GPT to create a template or outline, or brainstorm with a friend or colleague to make the task more concrete.
• Break into smaller steps: Split large tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. And when you need a hand, go to Goblin Tools, a website and app that will do it for you!

4. Improve your environment

Neurodivergent brains are more sensitive (or attuned) to their environments – help yourself out!

5. Support your emotions

When a person with ADHD can’t start a task, overwhelm and negative self-talk are often at play. For me, the first step is to anticipate this flood of emotions and accept that until I get into the flow, I might feel edgy. 

There is no magic hack to starting tasks. But, as in most things related to ADHD, building awareness from a place of self-compassion is a good place to start.